Irish teenagers as young as 15 being used as money mules

The majority of accounts being used to transfer criminally-obtained funds belong to people aged 18 to 24.

Teenagers as young as 15 are allowing their bank accounts to be used for the transfer of criminally-obtained funds, according to a new study.

The FraudSMART report found that more than 2,600 mule accounts have been identified in Irish banks in the first half of this year, enabling the transfer of close to €17.5m — up by almost 50% on the same period last year.